As a digital marketing agency specializing in small business marketing, we often work with clients who are looking to craft their brand. Branding is a lot like baking: the ingredients must be thoughtful and consistency is key. At Succeeding Small, we take pride in every brand that we bake.
At Succeeding Small, our team of branding experts utilizes three major steps to bake your brand. We are extremely purposeful in all that we do in order to craft a successful brand that truly showcases all a small business has to offer. First, our team bakes backwards taking the time to digest your vision, market, and message in order to plan the perfect brand that speaks to your audience. Next, we get our hands dirty by crafting the brand. Your brand is a lot like a cake; we must carefully map out the aesthetics and design to ensure that it is appealing and consistent across all platforms. Finally, our branding team must write the recipe of the brand we just created. By standardizing your brand with a formal style guide, you will be able to ensure your brand is consistent and as a small business owner, you will be able to not only recreate the cake, but you can teach the brand guidelines to your team.
Step One: Bake Backwards
As marketers specializing in small business clients, we understand that we must bake the cake, or brand, backwards. Small business owners have a lot on their plate, and they may have a clear vision of their mission, know their audience, and understand what differentiates their business from the rest of the competition, but our team takes the time to fully understand that vision and combine it with our expertise and thoughtful research.
Vision
Your small business was created for a reason. Your purpose lies in your mission and vision. Defining and refining your vision is where our digital marketing specialists come into play. We take the time to fully understand what makes your brand unique while investing our resources to identify your competitive advantage.
Market
When baking a brand, you must know who you will serve the cake to. Is your cake gluten free or perfect for a black-tie wedding? Understanding your differentiating factors and knowing your target market helps our team to create and market the perfect brand for your small business. By utilizing market research, client history, and demographics from your, and competitor, social media and web analytics, we are able to successfully define the prime market for your small business.
Message
As a small business owner, you may know what you want the world to know about your brand but may not have the perfect way to craft that message. Crafting intentional brand messaging to speak directly to your target audience is integral to the success of your brand. Thoughtful copy ranging from taglines, social media, meta descriptions, landing pages, and more will ultimately determine whether a potential customer becomes a loyal supporter of your small business. Utilizing social listening to monitor brand mentions, relevant hashtags, competitor mentions, and more allows us to successfully analyze the information to craft perfect messaging that tells your audience exactly why they need to buy your cake.
Step Two: Craft The Cake
Aesthetic
Are you creating a cake covered in race cars for a toddler’s birthday party, an extravagant cake for an award ceremony, or a platter of cheesecake bites for a family event? Every brand has an audience waiting to take a bite out of something delectable, but they are always looking for a specific look. Is your brand aesthetic bold and fun or professional and technical? No matter the appeal and feel you choose, your brand aesthetic should always elevate your brand message.
Design
The best way to portray your brand is through the visual design. Consumers are faced with constant content, so the best way to break through the clutter is by presenting your audience with fonts, colors, and graphics that are consistent with your brand message and appeal to their senses. Using font psychology and intentional color palettes is the perfect way to determine how your cake will look. Will your cake be topped with sparkling candles or piped with precision? Each design needs to be executed thoughtfully and consistently to showcase your brand.
Consistency
Brand consistency is key across all platforms. It is vital to ensure that your audience is receiving the same messaging across every touchpoint. The design, message, and vision determine the consistency of your cake. Keeping your tone and style consistent across your small business website, social media, emails, and review management is the ultimate way to ensure that your customers are getting the same incredible experience each and every time they interact with your brand. If you are known for baking an incredible gooey, chocolate cake, then your customers expect every bite to taste like a gooey, chocolate cake.
Step 3: Write The Recipe
After collaborating with our team to workshop the perfect brand, we must write the recipe. The ability to pass the brand from our team to yours is executed through thorough documentation so that you may teach your team. Every chef involved needs transparent access to the ingredients that define your brand message and design so that your audience can feel confident that they are receiving a consistent cake every single time.
Style Guide
A brand style guide is the ultimate recipe book. It defines the mission, vision, and audience of your small business. The style guide features key ingredients such as primary and secondary fonts, colors, and graphics as well as directions for style and tone. The brand style guide is the ultimate recipe book so that every material and message sent out by your brand is consistent.
Team Training
Teaching the rest of your team of chefs about how to replicate your brand is important so that your consumers can rely on each person you hire for your small business. Training your team about the tone and style of your brand will enable them to properly respond to online reviews, social media comments, and market your small business through word of mouth. Using the style guide is the best way to provide thorough team training.
Bake Your Brand With The Best | Succeeding Small
At Succeeding Small, we don’t take these recipes lightly. Ingredients are not thrown into your brand because they are trending or simply to make a cute cake. Every word in your brand message is crafted with intention, font is measured with care, and colors are decorated with precision. Our team of branding specialists are passionate about how every bite of your brand is enjoyed. Connect with us today so we may collaborate on the craft of your perfect brand.
